Children of War
by Martin Van Nostrand
Summary: The war is over, but peace cannot be brought overnight.  Our young heroes must continue in their struggles to correct a world scarred by the adults of their time.
1. Chapter 1

A young girl is walking down an ominous corridor. She looks upward nervously; there is a large door in front of her. She takes a deep breath and knocks twice.

A deep, smooth voice answers, "Enter".

The young girl obeys; she pushes aside the massive gate and faces her father.

"You skipped your lesson today."

"I am sorry father, we were playing hide and seek and I couldn't find them and I lost track of time-"

"You are foolish child who does not yet know the true power of the gift given to you."

She looks down the floor, her face full of shame and fear.

"Hold out your arm."

She makes a puzzled face but does not dare to question him. She holds her arm out in his direction. He gets up from his seat and grabs her by the hand very gently. She is suddenly very aware that they are alone in the room.

"Don't move" the hulking figure of a man orders. He then grabs her wrist tightly.

The young girl is startled as a small flame is conjured from his other hand placed just below her arm. She makes a small squeal and tries to nudge her arm free.

"If you move you are going to get burned, but if you stay still I will let go of you eventually."

The girl tries keeping her arm still but is shaking nervously.

"Please father!" she cries out.

He makes no response and she decides to stay quiet and take her punishment. She endures the painful stinging for ten seconds until tears break out from her eyes. He releases after fifteen seconds and puts out his flame.

"You see, even though the flame hurt you, you did not move because a fear of me kept you in line and a promise that I would let go made it seem logical to you to do so. I rule this nation in a similar manner. The war may have a price for some of our society but no one will dare go against me because of my power, and when I am offering a promise of a better future they find it better to just agree and let me handle things."

He gently pats her on the head and wipes a tear off her cheek.

"Next time try to control your emotions more. Let this lesson sink into your mind and tell me what you make of it tomorrow."

"Yes father."

She turns around and walks back down the corridor. The young girl goes to her room and lay on the bed, her eyes red from tears.

Suddenly that world melts away. Azula sits up and blinks several times. _It's just a dream_

She tries to look around but everything is engulfed in darkness.

_Years later and once again I'm just sitting here, this time in a cell. Father can't help me now, no one can._


	2. Chapter 2

It was a dark room. During the day, Azula would count the number of birds she saw flying through her tiny window to calm herself. In the night everything was completely dark, the only light she would see was if a guard went in to give her food. She was beginning to regain sanity; it was as if she were awakening from a long dream. All of her body ached and her wrists were burning from the constant rubbing of her shackles.

When she was first placed in this prison she had gone completely mad and was unable to control her actions. The guards had to resort to having her shackled inside the cell. When she had begun to calm down she would count the birds so that she wouldn't have to think about the events prior to her incarceration. She couldn't remember much; the last memory she had was losing in the Agni Kai and going hysterical afterwards. She could remember crying two nights in her cell. She figured that she also cried every night that she couldn't remember because her eyes felt painful.

At night Azula felt more scared than ever. All her memories were haunting her. There was nothing to distract herself with and was forced to face everything that had happened. She had started screaming several times and the guards had to go in and pacify her. The same two guards were outside her cell almost every night; they seemed to have opposite feelings toward her. One had a bad attitude towards her, she could recall him making a couple of sneer remarks about her being a failure and he would be rough with her when she was having a fit. The other guard was a lot nicer. He would try to soothe her with words during her fits and would get mad at the other guard for being too rough with her. Azula would have been appreciative of the nicer guard but could not seem to admit to herself that she felt something other than hate for a human being at the current time.

Azula couldn't remember how long it had been since her last fit. She was seeing her two friends betraying her over and over again in her mind. She saw her brother on the floor before she suddenly became encased in ice. Finally, she saw her father standing above her, looking down at her with a fiery gaze. Then she couldn't take it anymore. She started screaming, hoping that it would make the images go away. Both guards came running inside.

"Wait, don't grab her! she's only screaming"

"Well get her to shut up if you care so much! I can't take this noise anymore!"

Azula quieted down after a couple seconds.

"Princess, are you all right?"

Azula remained quiet, with her back turned to them. The guards looked at each other and shrugged. They left the cell and closed the door. She was now in the darkness again, all alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Breath in, breath out, breath in, Breath out

Zuko had found it necessary to practice breathing techniques whenever he was unoccupied by something else. Lately he seemed to be aggravated by everything. The members of his council would constantly bicker and complain to him, his advisers would always be teaching him about politics as if he were a child, and he received countless threats from supporters of his father. He would be going on a rampage if he didn't have the things that would soothe him, one was his breathing, and the other was spending time with Mai

Zuko was on his way to Mai's house. The first thing he noticed once he was outside the palace gate was the ever present palanquin. A servant noticed him and got up to speak, "Where may we take you Fire Lord?"

"It's ok I'm just headed to Mai's house again"

"Hey!"

Zuko looked up. He could see a Kyoshi Warrior running towards him; he recognized her as Sokka's girlfriend but couldn't remember her name.

_What was it? Was it something like Sokka? Sukka, Sikka?_

She ran in front in him and gave a warm smile. "Hi Zu- , err Fire Lord Zuko".

He felt somewhat nervous

"Hello, Sikka?" He tried mumbling the name to see if she wouldn't notice if he was wrong.

Her smile fell into a slight frown "It's Suki."

Zuko slapped his palm into his forehead "Right Suki, I'm so sorry. I've been kind of stressed lately."

Her frown curved into a smirk "Heh, it's all right. Anyway I was sent to bring you to Mai's house."

Zuko felt some relief, "Oh yea?"

"Yea, we'll explain it all when we get there, come on!"

With that she ran off in the direction of Mai's house. Zuko ran after her, he could hear the palanquin servant complain.

Zuko entered Mai's house. He noticed Mai and a certain girl dressed in a Kyoshi Warrior uniform were sitting at a table talking. There was no mistaking the girl's signature wide grin.

"Hi Zuko!"

Zuko rubbed the back of his head, "Hey Ty Lee. Listen I know we're good friends and all but it still is formal to address me by Fire Lord first"

Ty Lee's mouth dropped in what seemed to be awe, "You... still consider me one of your _good_ friends?"

Zuko's eyebrow went up in confusion. _I wonder if she thought the bonding we did on Ember Island was lost when I changed sides._

"That's so great!" Ty Lee sprang towards him and caught him in an embrace. Zuko could hear Suki giggling a little bit behind him.

"Yeah so, I actually wanted to talk to you." Ty Lee finally let go of him.

Zuko straightened his robe with a swipe of his hands, "Really? What might this be concerning?"

Mai cut into the conversation, "_Ahem_- perhaps I should tell him" She walked to Zuko and gave a slight smile.

Zuko returned the smile as he greeted her, followed by another hug.

"What is it Mai?"

Mai glanced to Ty Lee then cleared her throat, "Well Ty Lee came to me because she feels concerned about what the situation is with your um- sister".

At the sound of the word Zuko felt a slight spark go off in his head. He looked over to Ty Lee, her grin was gone and was replaced by a frown.

Suki broke the silence, "Yes actually we were helping rebuild an Earth Kingdom town when she told me how she was feeling and asked me if she could come here. I was reluctant at first but finally I decided I would personally accompany her to find out what she wants to know."

Zuko sighed; he knew this was not going to go well. Ty Lee was staring right into his eyes. He could feel some guilt building up.

"Well Ty Lee I don't know what you have heard yet but I actually made a promise to Aang that I would not let her rot in prison like my father. I promised to do anything I could to help her be healthy again and get her to change her ways."

Ty Lee's face brightened. "Oh yea? That sounds great! How is she now?"

Zuko sighed and cleared his throat, stalling time so that he could think of what he would say.

"Well I did send some kind of a mind specialist to see if he could help her but she was too hysterical when we first put her in prison. She is still a firebender Ty, she's dangerous. I had to let her cool off for some time before I tried again. I've gotten so busy with everything I have to take care of now that I haven't really gotten a chance to pay too much attention to the matter lately. Although I did allow her some more freedom privileges in her cell when I got a report that she hadn't attempted firebending in weeks."

Ty Lee looked down at her feet. She looked thoughtful. Mai put her arm around her and led her to a seat.

Zuko hadn't felt very much guilt over the situation with his sister. She had nearly killed him and he personally thought she was lucky that her life was spared along with her father's.

Now Ty Lee made him feel bad.

He glanced to Suki. She was still standing in the corner where she had stood the whole time. Her eyes caught his for a moment then she quickly turned away, pretending to be busy with something on her armor.

Zuko rubbed the back of his head again. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way Ty Lee, but why did it occur to you to check up on Azula? I thought your friendship with her ended completely after she had you imprisoned."

Ty Lee turned to him. Zuko could see the hurt in her eyes. "I know we aren't friends like we used to be. I don't regret changing sides and helping Mai but I still feel kinda bad."

Ty Lee walked right in front of Zuko. Her pouting face was irresistible, he suddenly wanted to grant her anything in the world she wanted as if she was his spoiled daughter.

"I know she did lots of bad things Zuko, but she deserves a second chance just like you did. Somewhere inside her was my real friend who showed herself to me a couple of times. I just can't stand to see someone innocent get hurt."

Zuko's head started to feel heavy. "Ty are you sure this isn't just that devotion to do every one of my sister's commands? You know she doesn't have any power over you anymore, you can go and forget about her completely if you want to."

Ty Lee did not hesitate to reply. "I don't intend to let her push me around anymore. Mai and I have been with her since we were little. I know she's been through a lot. The only other person, who should know this more than us, is you Zuko."

Zuko nodded, "That is true Ty Lee, both my sister and I have been subject to the control of my father. I was able to break free but I can't expect the same from Azula. She always clung close to Father, his command on her is far too strong."

He regarded Mai "What do you think about this."

Mai didn't change the expression on her face. "I don't care much for Azula. I left her for good. You can do whatever you want with her I don't care."

Ty Lee's eye widened, "Mai! You can't really think that can you?"

"I'm sorry Ty but she there's probably nothing we can do for her."

"Did you really promise Aang?"

Zuko turned to look at Suki, who had finally broken her silence, "Yes I did."

"Well Fire Lord if you made a promise then you're gonna have to stay by it."

Zuko felt some annoyance, "I told you, I'm really busy with fixing the Fire Nation right now."

"Do you have any plans on what you intend to do with her?"

"Well… no I haven't gotten around to it."

"Well I don't care for her much either but if two of my friends say she deserves a second chance then I say do something about it."

Suki didn't give Zuko a chance to respond before continuing. "I know! What if you let Ty Lee visit her? Maybe seeing a former friend can get to her."

Zuko didn't share her enthusiasm on the idea. "That would just make her mad. She was outraged when Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her. I doubt she wants to see them again."

Ty Lee replied. "No wait. I wanna do it Zuko. I seem to be the only one who has seen her true self."

"Ty Lee I can't risk letting you get hurt just for a theory that she still has a part of her not filled with hate."

Ty Lee furrowed her eyebrows then responded. "Do you remember Ember Island? When the four of us went for a vacation from all the war and stuff?"

Zuko was thrown off by her sudden change of topic.

"Erm- yes I do."

"Remember when we all talked about the bad feelings inside us that made us the way we are. Azula said your mom thought she was a monster. She seemed to be filled with hurt not hate that moment didn't she?"

Zuko had to process this for a moment. He turned to face the door. It was true, he did remember seeing the emotion in Azula's eyes when she admitted that. He also remembered how she managed to pretend she didn't care at all. _Mother… perhaps she had a bigger role in this than I had thought_

"Ty Lee, Suki, do you guys have somewhere to stay tonight?"

"They can stay with me for the duration of their visit." Mai said.

"Ty Lee you can visit Azula tomorrow if you want. She's at the prison tower, I'll have them informed of your arrival and they will take you to her."

Zuko turned around to see Ty Lee grinning. "Thanks Zuko, I knew you would see it my way."

He looked back to Mai and offered her a slight smile. She didn't return it. "Goodnight Mai, will you come over to the palace tomorrow?"

Mai made a slight wince for a second. Zuko knew this was one of her ways of smiling without actually doing it.

"Sure, I'll be there for Dinner. You better not be in another meeting again, I hate it when you blow me off."

He felt like chuckling but didn't, "Of course, tomorrow will be saved for you. Bye Mai, bye Ty Lee"

He turned to Suki and gave her a nod, she returned it.

Some of Zuko's guards were outside waiting for him, they stood to attention when he stepped outside.

_Perhaps it's time to give father another visit._


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter was a real pain for me. This is where all of the emotion for the story has to be captured. I'm still thinking of how to fix it. Please give some honest feedback on this one.

By the by, I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender or any of it's characters. It would be quite sad if Bryke decided to sue some random fanfic that didn't give credit.

* * *

A light burned through her eyelids.

"Huh?"

Azula opened her eyes lazily and could see the square hole on the iron door was opened letting in a ray of light.

"Princess you have a visitor, stay against the wall and do not attempt anything."

Some metal clinks and the door slid open. Azula was too tired to stand up from her corner. A small slim silhouette walked in. Azula squinted to try and see who it was.

"Just give the word if you need something."

"Thank you." It was a gentle young voice. The familiarity of it made Azula's heart start racing,

The door closed but the small hatch was left open. Azula's eyes were wide open now. She felt a sudden wave of emotions and her chest felt as if it would burst.

The thin figure walked close to the iron bars that separate half of the room.

Azula could hear nervousness in the voice. "He-hello."

Azula breathed in deeply. Then she started humming loudly to herself. The sudden wave of emotions that swept over her was too much to bear. She hummed as loudly as she could to block out the world.

"' 'Zula are you okay?"

The voice was unmistakable. She looked up to confirm her fears. Azula immediately turned to her corner and shoved her face into the palms of her hands.

"Do you remember me?"

No response.

"It's me Ty Lee, we used to be friends. Can you even hear me?"

Azula wasn't thinking when the word slipped from her mouth, "No."

The dark figure knelt down, obviously hesitant about getting close to the bars. Azula stopped humming and looked down at her hand; she could barely make out its shape.

Azula looked towards her tiny window. It was dark but not dark enough for it to be night time. _Must be a cloudy day._

"I guess this is kinda awkward huh 'Zula. Well just so you know I didn't come here to hurt you or be mean or anything. "

The images were coming back. Azula had almost managed to stop thinking about them. Now _she _had to come here and mess everything up.

"Are you mad? If you are, please tell me. I don't like it when you're quiet like this."

Azula could now feel the anger rushing in, the hot flames whirling around in her mind.

"Shut up. Get out right now Ty Lee. You shouldn't be here."

Ty Lee fidgeted a little.

"So I guess you still remember what happened. Okay 'Zula I didn't really come here knowing what to say. This is kind of a difficult situation to-"

"Get out get out get out!" Azula was now yelling with her back still turned to the room.

A guard called in through the hatch, "Is everything all right in there?"

"Yeah we're fine, everything's fine." Ty Lee answered nervously.

She stood up and looked down to Azula.

"As I was saying… I wanna help you but I need to know how you feel about everything's that happened. You should know by now that you made some mistakes. You need to let go of what your father told you okay?"

Azula rolled over onto her back and looked up to Ty Lee's face. It felt like she hadn't seen the familiar face in years. She could make out the gentle, round curves of her face. The beauty had made her feel jealous several times.

"Did any of that get to you? Well I guess I'll take your advice and leave. You obviously aren't feeling well. How about I come back sometime? Tomorrow?"

"How could you? How could you come back here like this? You little traitor! You filthy tease!" Azula was letting all the rage and confusion meld into each other.

"Tease?" , Ty lee gave a confused look. "Well you still remember that huh? I'll let it slide this time, there are worse things you could've called me."

Azula felt tears dripping down her face. She turned immediately to conceal her exposure.

"I'll come back tomorrow okay? I wanna help you 'Zula, but you need to be able to help yourself. If you won't try to see how things really are then there's no point."

Azula could hear Ty Lee's footsteps all the way to the door. There was some whispering and then the door opened. Then the door closed. It was dark again. Many things were going through Azula's mind. It was hard for her to take the battering of all the thoughts. She let herself cry so that she could let some of the venom in her mind out.

_At least in here I can do whatever I want without having to worry about someone seeing me. I wish those clouds would clear up._


	5. Chapter 5

"I think the best idea is to send soldiers back until things settle down."

Zuko turned his head in disagreement. He didn't need to bother thinking over this suggestion.

"The governor asked me to withdraw all troops from the area until all the citizens decide whether or not to come back."

"But they have been attacked too many times. It is taking long for us to transport them back to The Fire Nation while a lot of them are still refusing to leave or to change nationality."

Zuko could feel his frustration building up. He had heard the situation a thousand times.

At the end of the war Zuko immediately offered the Earth King all of his former property back as a sign of peace. The Earth King knew that this would cause problems for the families that are already settled in his land, so he allowed them to stay as long as they officially become Earth Kingdom citizens. Now many of them blatantly refused the offer by saying that the land belongs to the Fire Nation. This caused many Earth Kingdom locals to attack the colonies and even the ships taking the people back to the Fire Nation. The worst part was that the new governor asked Zuko to withdraw all of his military from their land leaving the colonists unprotected.

"I have sent word to King Kuei asking that he send some more of his military to protect the land. Other than that there isn't much I can do."

The advisor snorted. "You can ignore their ridiculous requests and send the military back to protect _your _people."

Zuko suddenly flared with anger and stood up. "I am your FireLord and you will show me respect!"

He realized how he reacted and sat back down. "I have made my decision. If you don't want this war to start again then we of all nations need to make compromises. You are excused."

He could see a hint of fear in the man's face. _My father used to be able to scare people for respect._

The advisor quickly bowed and left.

Zuko sat there staring. He wasn't really staring at anything, he was almost seeing through everything until he could see back into his own mind. He snapped out of his trance after a while with a shiver. _I need some air._

The gardens were blooming very nicely. Zuko stopped in front of his favorite pond. Some turtle ducks took notice of him. There were three of them, a mother and two turtle ducklings. He wondered how the children would react if the mother were to suddenly disappear.

After sitting in the grass for a while he noticed a man walking towards him.

"Fire Lord." The man bowed.

"What is it?"

"I was sent with the message that Lady Mai would like for you to visit her."

Zuko stood up and rubbed the grass off his robe. "All right then. Thank you."

He started to walk away but then the man ran back in front of him looking nervous.

"Well- actually I was sent for you some time before. I couldn't find you and the palace is just so darn big."

"Well I doubt Mai is going to suddenly disappear so it's fine."

The man looked down to his feet nervously.

Zuko slapped his forehead. "Ugh, what is it now?"

"Err- she actually w-wanted you to go immediately because she said something about going into the city for something."

Zuko sighed. "Don't worry about it. I'll go see if she's there."

The man stood straight up and bowed exaggeratingly. "Thank you FireLord!" He proceeded to scurry away.

Zuko arrived at Mai's house. He let himself in since Mai had already gotten comfortable with him doing that.

"Mai?"

He searched the bottom floor but there wasn't a trace of anyone. He went upstairs and thought he could hear some noise coming from a bedroom.

He walked into the room and immediately noticed a girl turned away, putting her shirt on.

"Hey Mai!"

There was a shriek and she turned around dropping into a fighting position. It was Suki.

Zuko felt his face turn red with embarrassment. He covered his eyes with his hands and stumbled around trying to leave the room.

"Aww, oh noo. Sorry! I don't know what I'm doing!"

"Huh? Zuko! No it's okay calm down."

He could hear some shuffling of cloth before tripping over an object and falling.

"Zuko are you allright? You can open your eyes now."

Zuko looked up and could see Suki, her face was also bright red. She helped him up.

"I'm sorry I thought you were Mai. I completely forgot you were staying here."

Suki chuckled nervously. "It's fine Zuko. I'm surprised you managed to sneak up on me. Just try knocking next time."

"Yea… I'll try that."

Zuko looked away. His head was throbbing and his face felt very warm. Suki was looking around nervously. They stood there in awkward silence.

"Mai and Ty lee went out. Ty Lee insisted on them going out together to talk and have fun. I wanted to stay here."

"Leave it to me to come in at the worst time." Zuko chuckled for a second then stood there silently again.

"Yea heh. You did."

Zuko finally built up the courage to look at Suki's face. She looked back at him, she seemed a lot more relaxed now.

"Well I better get going." He turned for the door and started walking.

"Wait! I mean, despite what just happened here. Do you mind having me along for a while? I was getting bored here by myself. I actually resorted to trying on different clothes."

Zuko swallowed. _I better not mess this up._

"Yeah… sure. I was just going back to the palace. Probably going to be spending a lot of time just sitting there wasting time when I'm actually supposed to be thinking of solutions to problems."

Suki smiled. "Sounds like fun."


	6. Chapter 6

Suki put down her scroll. She grabbed and put another pastry into her mouth.

"Mmm.. I can see why Mai likes these so much."

Zuko's attention was broken away from the message he was reading. "Erm- yes. She does like them a lot."

Suki shuffled in her seat. She rolled up the scroll and put it down. "Well I gotta say. If I read anymore I might go nuts."

Zuko looked up and furrowed his eyebrows. Suki was smiling impishly, it almost reminded him of Sokka.

"So you're bored again huh?"

"Yeah. It's all right though. I'm the one who said I wanted to come. Don't let me interrupt you."

Zuko stretched his neck muscles. "So, is Sokka still with Katara in the Southern Water Tribe?"

Suki sprang up as if she suddenly gained a lot of energy.

"Actually he said that they would be going back and forth between the two tribes, I think Katara might have also gone with Aang to help with some rebellions across the Earth Kingdom."

Zuko thought for a moment. He walked next to Suki and grabbed a fruit tart from her plate.

"Have you seen much of him lately?"

Suki looked down. She was suddenly filled with emotion and Zuko could see it. Unlike Mai she did a bad job of hiding it.

"It has been a while. I've been doing work in the Earth Kingdom with the Kyoshi Warriors while he went to help with the Water Tribes. He asked me if I wanted to go several times but I knew I would be pretty much useless there, plus I would have to leave my girls behind."

Zuko nodded. He gave a loud sigh.

"It does seem that we all have to put aside our own desires to help with the conflicts. I'm only hoping that it will all end soon and we can all get to be with whoever we love."

Suki chuckled. "What's wrong FireLord? Do miss your girlfriend?" She asked in a playful tone.

Zuko let his serious face turn into a smile. "I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I get to see Mai a lot. I just feel like so much is missing."

Suki nudged him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. You are a very young FireLord. Of course you're going to feel weird about all this. I'm sure you'll feel happy in the end like the rest of us."

Zuko looked to her face. "Thanks."

They sat there in silence again. Zuko was lost in thought.

Finally Suki decided to say something. "By the way, thanks for letting Ty Lee visit your sister in prison."

"Well after all that badgering how could I refuse? By any chance, did she mention how that went?"

"She didn't say much. She told me that Azula was still feeling kind of bad and that she was going to visit her again tomorrow."

Alarms went off in his head. "Tomorrow!"

Zuko realized he had said that in a menacing tone. Suki had a guilty face as if she just gave away some valuable information by mistake.

"Err- well- no she was going to ask you, I think. She was probably going to ask you today. I guess I messed that up for her."

Zuko calmed himself. He didn't mean to make himself look threatening to her.

"No you know what, that's okay. Obviously one visit wasn't going to do anything. I have actually begun thinking about this whole mess anyway."

Suki seemed to relax. "So what have you been thinking of this situation then?"

"Not much really. I have been thinking of what the sources of… Azula's problems are and how to fix them."

Zuko felt some nervousness. He tried to hide it as best as he could. He wasn't ready to reveal his full plan quite yet.

Suki turned to look out a window. "That's nice. I'm sure Ty Lee will appreciate that a lot more than I do. I wouldn't be willing to spend this much time here if I didn't know how much this means to her."

Zuko felt curious.

"So you're only doing this because you want to do her a favor?"

Suki glanced back to him. "Oh no, of course not. I always try to do the right thing. I admit that I can't really feel compassion for Azula after all the memories I have of her. I assume that you don't have full control over your nations since most of it was supporting your father and her. I figured if we could get her to be on your side then that might give you support of loyal followers of your father."

Zuko scratched his chin. _I haven't thought of it in that way. _

Suki looked back outside. "I think we should go see if they're back yet."

Zuko followed her gaze out the window. He couldn't remember how much time they'd spent there."

"Yeah you're probably right."


	7. Chapter 7

I would like to give a shout out to my homegirl Rikku-Azula. I appreciate your comment. Yo hablo espanol tambien, todo mi familia son de Mexico.

* * *

Ty Lee will come back. She has to, she already promised me that!

Azula had been feeling uneasy since her visit from Ty Lee. She had been thinking about it the whole night before until she fell asleep. Now she knew that today would be another visit. It felt like every hour was stretched out into three. Azula couldn't tell one emotion from another. She didn't know whether she was horrified or angry that Ty Lee was going to talk to her again, perhaps she was just confused. Anxiety then slowly began to overwhelm her. Azula was staring into the door as if she could make it burst open simply by thinking about it.

She heard footsteps. Some talking perhaps? No it's just footsteps. A slight clinking at the door.

The door's window opened. Her heart began to pound.

"Prisoner your friend has come to visit again. I assume you will behave same as yesterday?"

The door opened. It took a couple of seconds but Ty Lee walked in eventually, hesitant again.

Azula knew she had been waiting for this moment. Now that it happened she couldn't figure out what she wanted from it.

Ty Lee stood there looking down at Azula, who was lying on the cot facing directly upward. They stay like that for several more seconds in complete silence.

Ty Lee spoke first. "Please don't make me start the conversation."

Azula let out a breath.

"Well since you haven't acted up yet I guess you aren't too mad about me coming back. Are you?"

"I'm sick."

Ty Lee showed some relief that the other person in the room was speaking.

"Oh. Do you want some medicine or something? They will probably let you have some tea if you want."

"Not that kind of sick Ty Lee"

She got on her knees so that she could speak to Azula's face.

"Oh."

Azula finally decided to look into Ty Lee's eyes. It made Ty Lee jump back a little as if she were intimidated.

"What exactly do you want me to tell you? I have no information that could possibly be important to you."

"I don't want anything from you, really. I just figured you need someone to talk to. When do you get to talk to someone in here?"

Azula made to attempt to hide her anger as she spoke. "Never."

Ty Lee looked sympathetic. "Well I guess you can tell me whatev-"

"If you want to talk to someone then I suggest you go with your new friends. I assume you are friends with the Avatar and his girlfriend and Zuzu and all of them. Hmm? All of them! You don't care about me, traitor, you have real friends!"

She was covering her face with her hands while screaming out. Ty Lee looked around nervously.

"Shh. Calm down Azula! Be quiet or they are gonna restrain you."

A guard opened the door rather than talking through the window. "What's going on in here?"

Ty Lee turned around. "It's all right. She's just getting riled up. If something bad is happening I'll call you."

The guard seemed very reluctant to, but he left and closed the door again.

Azula was muttering some things to herself.

"Azula I'm sorry. Please calm down. Don't let me being here mess up the good streak you had going on."

Azula didn't want to look at her anymore.

"You don't deserve to talk to me! After what you've done. You don't talk to me…"

Ty Lee sighed.

"I can't believe you're still mad about what I did. After all this time you still haven't reflected on yourself? How can you still believe in your father so much?"

Some tears started to trickle down Azula's face.

"Father? He'll get me out of here. I'm sure of it. How could he though? How could he just leave me behind? He left me for dead… if it wasn't for the waterbender…" Her voice was falling into a whisper.

Ty Lee felt looked very uneasy now. Azula muttered some more things to herself then became quiet.

"So… how has it been going this long without firebending? It's good that you managed to stop yourself from doing it this whole time."

Azula answered immediately. "I can't"

Ty Lee turned her head to its side. "You can't what?"

Azula did not answer this.

Ty Lee seemed to ponder about this for a while before continuing the conversation.

"So what was that you said about your father before? What do you mean he left you for dead?"

Azula got up from her cot and stood on the other side of the bars.

"What do you expect me to do now Ty Lee? "

Ty Lee let out a nervous chuckle. "I already told you, I don't expect anything from you."

Azula grabbed onto the bars and leaned into then.

"You see, I don't think that's true. You only come here because you think that somehow I'm going to not be a monster and then we can all apologize and be happy friends for the rest of our lives. That's it isn't it? Well it's ridiculous. I am a monster and I know it. The only person I thought I needed was my father but now I don't know, but most importantly I know you don't really want to be friends."

Ty Lee was becoming frustrated.

"Azula I don't know what I have to do to prove to you I want to be your friend. I came back here after what you did to me. No matter how much you want to deny it, you betrayed me Azula! You tried to hurt Mai. You feel so sorry for yourself because we supposedly betrayed you but in fact you were the one who was wrong!"

She turned around then breathed in and out several times to cool off. Azula was thrown back by the sudden rant of the girl who always seemed so cheerful.

When she was calm again, Ty Lee turned back to her former friend.

"And you're not a monster Azula. I have no doubt that your mother would take anything she said back the first chance she got. Zuko still believes in you, he even gave your father a chance by letting him live. I want to believe in you, but you make it hard for me. I guess asking you to change everything you learned in your life is asking a little too much."

Azula stayed standing there, looking at her. Ty Lee was looking away from her face. Azula reached out with one hand.

"Let me grab your hand."

Ty Lee looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"Don't think too much about it. I haven't felt the warmth of another human being in I don't know how long. Just give me this one thing."

Ty Lee looked at the open palm, considering it. Azula could tell what she was thinking.

"I promise I won't hurt you, if my promises still mean anything to you."

Ty Lee swallowed then slowly reached for the hand. As she put her hand in the palm, Azula immediately grabbed onto her.

Azula caressed her hand for a second then simply let it sit there for a moment. Ty Lee looked to Azula's face, she had her eyes closed and seemed to be concentrating.

After what felt like several minutes but in reality was a couple of seconds, Azula let go of the hand and withdrew her arm.

Ty Lee stood there awkwardly. She didn't know what to say about that. Azula sat down on her cot and let her head hang. The long unkempt hair fell down her face, concealing it.

"You know… when you guys… left me, I felt lost. I can't really explain what I was going through close to the end of the war. I guess I just want you to know that you guys, the closest things I had to friends, did mean something to me. I'm glad that you turned out fine and my anger didn't let me get you killed. I don't have much else to say.

Azula fell onto her back and stretched her arms upward.

Ty Lee lit up with delight at these words. She let out a slight grin.

"I'm kind of tired and I feel like taking a nap." Azula's voice was muffled from behind her hair.

"Okay 'Zula. Whatever you want."

She knocked on the large iron door and left the room. Before they closed it she quickly poked her head in for some parting words.

"I'll come back. Remember, we're all on the same side."

The door closed shut. The sound of vibrating metal rang through Azula's ears and eventually subsided. She was there again, sitting all alone. Only now she wasn't the same. Something was different inside her. Azula scratched at her tunic, for once she didn't mind how uncomfortable it was.


	8. Chapter 8

Zuko was in the middle of eating his meal when he heard a tapping at his door. He put down his chopsticks and set aside the papers he was stamping.

He cleared his throat. "Come in."

The door opened slowly. Mai glided inside. She greeted Zuko and he offered her a seat.

"So… has Ty Lee gone to visit my sister again?" Zuko inquired.

Mai sniffed as if she held back a chuckle. The smirk on her face was always heartwarming for Zuko.

"Yes, she is still very excited about it. Apparently things went very well. She didn't want to tell me everything. She says she won't reveal anything Azula told her in confidence without permission."

Zuko raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't expected that his sister would react positively towards anyone so soon. He didn't even want to personally pay her a visit anytime soon.

"That's... good. Well I did ask you to come here for a reason."

Mai sat there and stared at him. "Yeah I know. I'm waiting."

Zuko went back to his seat and sat down.

"It's about my mother."

Mai's eyes widened. He had obviously gotten her attention.

"I've been trying to get as much information about her since my father was put in prison. He has refused to tell me anything many times but I have been able to get a little out of him every now and then."

Zuko had to turn around to fight back some emotion from overwhelming him. He then regained his composure and turned to Mai to continue.

"I think he doesn't really know for sure where she is. But I learned that she was banished from the Fire Nation and might have wondered somewhere into the Earth Kingdom to live a life as someone else."

Mai sat there, staring at Zuko with a frown.

"And you want to go find her don't you?"

"I want to find out what happened to her." Zuko replied.

"She would've probably shown herself if she found out the war is over. You know she might not… be around anymore." Mai said gravely.

Zuko didn't want to hear this. "I know. I just need to find out where she is."

Zuko had been having conflict with this for a while. Since the war ended he gained a little hope that his mother might suddenly show up. He knew what Mai said should be true; if she was still alive she would surely ask her loyal son to let her come back to her home. He waited for her to come home every day, but she never did. Sometimes he wished that his father would just admit he had her killed so that he wouldn't have to be disappointed every day.

"It's what Azula needs… it's what I need." He said quietly.

Zuko let his head hang down. Mai got up and went to hold him.

She held him close. He felt a lot warmer. Zuko wondered why he still felt so empty even though he has so much. He usually felt all right when Mai was with him. The sudden realization came that she was the closest family he had at that moment; the real ones were dead, crazy, or serving tea far away.

"If it's what you want, then do whatever you need to. I'm sure the nation can manage to stay together long enough for you to do something for yourself."

Mai held Zuko's head in both her hands. She was trying to look into his eyes but he kept his head down. He thought about what she had proposed but knew it was only wishful thinking.

"I don't think it can."


End file.
